Take a look at 2017’s movie titles… Logan, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Wonder Woman, Justice League, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Justice League, Star Wars: Episode VIII.
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Still, War for the Planet of the Apes is trying to swing into the running for most anticipated movie of the year. With an epic line-up coming, it’s nearly impossible to earn such a title without having a super hero in its title of playing sequel to the largest film franchise in the world. Still, War for the Planet of the Apes definitely deserves a spot on 2017’s Movie Mount Rushmore, already.
For the first time since New York Comic Con, 20th Century Fox unleashed new clips from the upcoming film during an invite-only event on Thursday afternoon in New York City. Director Matt Reeves introduced three clips, one of which was shown off during their October event, and each showed the wildly impressive accomplishments of a still incomplete movie.
The first clip was jammed with intense action. It was the opening sequence of the threequel. Humans battling apes in Vietnam-like warfare. Explosions. Fire. Smoke. Bullets everywhere. Non-stop intensity to start the film with a well-balanced fight, showing us neither the apes nor humans have an upperhand despite both taking major losses.
“As War begins, we are two years into the fight,” director Matt Reeves said. “The fight that began in the city has moved into the woods.”
Reeves, giddy with excitement, shared a lot of details regarding the film during the presentation.
“As the film begins, they’ve been fighting brutally and the humans are looking for Caesar. He’s become basically a legend,” Reeves said. “The human army starts making its way up the hill and they discover an ape trench which indicates they might be near finding Caesar.”
“As the story escalates, Caesar goes on a mythic journey,” Reeves said. “Caesar is trying to find a way to restore any sense of peace.”
The second clip shows us that Caesar has lost all of that will to restore peace. The ape does not hesitate to blow a human away with his shotgun who appeared to be surrending. As it turned out, the man was going to attempt to gun down the apes, so Caesar’s actions were justified.
“At the beginning of the story, Caesar still has empathy for humans,” Reeves said. “The Colonel and his men respond with true cruelty.”
Little is known about the Colonel outside of the trailers shown during the presentation and at New York Comic Con — all of which looks menacing and terrifying. “Woody [Harrelson], when you find out why he’s doing the things he’s doing, you find out he has justification for them,” Reeves said.
The third clip stayed away from action, like the second, which as a choice of Reeves’. He is proud of the dramatic and emotional scenes which drive the movie and, as seen on Thursday, they work. Unfinished footage displayed the tenacity, sadness, and overall wide range of emotions Andy Serkis and other cast members (including new comer Steve Zahn) bring to the scenes before being computerized into monkeys.
“The first version of the movie that you see is just the actors,” Reeves said. “Then the shots tart coming in and we start judging the performances of the apes against the actors.”
War for the Planet of the Apes looks like the brilliant combination of action and drama. The stakes are higher than ever before and the franchise continues to set the standard for reboots.
It’s safe to say, War is the most anticipated movie of 2017 which takes place on earth and has no comic book characters in it, but as we will see in 2017 — the movie will be able to go toe to toe with the best of them.
War for the Planet of the Apes hits theaters July 14, 2017.
